Sure, it's nice that the Star Wars trilogy is back in theaters. But if we're talking modern movie classics, The Godfather is the real McCorleone.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the best gangster picture ever made, a refurbished Godfather has been playing in theaters in other cities since last month. And today, the 1972 classic will open at the Fashion Square 6 in Orlando.

Although a print of the spruced-up masterpiece wasn't available for preview, I remember the movie well and can give it my highest recommendation. In fact - considered together with its 1974 sequel - The Godfather is my favorite American movie since color came in.

The motion-picture academy liked the film too, incidentally, awarding it Oscars for best picture, best actor (Marlon Brando) and best adapted screenplay. The screenplay was written by Mario Puzo, who also wrote the best-selling novel on which the film is based, and the film's director, Francis Ford Coppola.

The peerless cast is an Acting Hall of Fame. In addition to Brando, it includes such future Oscar winners as Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton, as well as James Caan, Talia Shire, John Cazale and Sterling Hayden.

The Star Wars saga is fun, but The Godfather is an offer you shouldn't refuse.

Most of the women in Unhook the Stars are not very pleasant. And the person that they aren't pleasant to is Mildred, a middle-aged widow played by Gena Rowlands (Something to Talk About).

Take Mildred's ungrateful daughter (Moira Kelly). After spewing invective at her poor, good-natured mom, the wretch abruptly moves out of her home.

Then there's Mildred's daughter-in-law (Bridgette Wilson), whose meanness takes a more polite form. While smiling sweetly, she makes it abundantly clear that the lonely older woman is unwelcome in her life.

Even Monica (Marisa Tomei of My Cousin Vinny), Mildred's neighbor, is rather unkind to Mildred - even when she is begging Mildred to babysit her young son. But at least Monica has the excuse of an abusive husband to help explain her bad behavior.

The relationship between Mildred, Monica and Monica's son forms the emotional center of Unhook the Stars, which also features Gerard Depardieu as a French-Canadian truck driver who takes a shine to Mildred. This slice-of-life drama was directed and co-written by Nick Cassavetes, an actor-turned-director who also happens to be the real-life son of Rowlands and the late filmmaker John Cassavetes.

Although the film is admirable in attempting to explore the lives of ''ordinary people,'' it unfortunately tends to take a superior attitude toward its characters. In fact, the movie struck me as taking a rather superior attitude toward its audience.

Cassavetes makes his points so emphatically that I often felt talked down to. The way he emphasizes Mildred's saintliness in the face of the rude women surrounding her is a prime example of this - and possibly something more.

It's almost as if Cassavetes were saying, ''When it comes to women, Mom, the only good one is you.''

Although I rarely walk out on movies, I almost left in the middle of That Old Feeling. This big-screen sitcom features Bette Midler and Dennis Farina as Lily and Dan, a divorced couple who rediscover their passion for each other at the wedding of their daughter.

Aside from simple inertia, what kept me in my seat was, I suspect, a basic respect for the performers, who go far beyond the line of duty to bring something like personality to this utterly impersonal material.

Falling back on her indomitable brassiness, Midler barrels through the film as if the script, by writer/co-producer Leslie Dixon (Mrs. Doubtfire), was not a showcase for boob-tubish shtick. As for Farina (Get Shorty), he manages to maintain his dignity.

That's not the same thing as being funny, but it's something.

I was also grateful for the performance of Paula Marshall (TV's Chicago Sons) who, as Lily and Dan's daughter, often suggests Mary Tyler Moore in her Laura Petrie days. (Carl Reiner, who cast Moore in The Dick Van Dyke Show, directed That Old Feeling.)

Another trooper is David Rasche (TV's Sledge Hammer), who plays Lily's second husband, a psycho-babbling self-help guru with three poodles. After this guy realizes that Lily has deserted him for Dan, Rasche finds just the right casually mock-pensive way to deliver the line, ''Should have never bought that third dog.''

That line comes rather late in the film - a small reward for sticking around.